Less Time Than You Earned
by Obitobito
Summary: Kakashi was the master of dodging personal questions. This was, though, the master of all personal questions ever presented to him - always had been. (Kakashi, Obito)


[A/N: The description of the ending of the 3rd Naruto Movie:  
"The movie ends at Mount Shumisen with Kakashi thinking about Obito. He smiles at Naruto after seeing the similarities between the two. Naruto takes the smile as something creepy and random. The Konoha 11 surround them on various parts of the rocky ledge, each give their input on Kakashi's sexual orientation upon seeing this. Kakashi hurriedly denies their assumptions but not before Naruto panics and flees from him. Kakashi then chases after the fleeing Naruto trying to explain himself. A comedic and lighthearted ending to the story."]

**Less Time Than You Earned**

"Ano sa, Kakashi-sensei?"

Teams 11 and 7 (the remains of the latter) were heading back to Konoha village after a succesful mission that took place upon Mount Shumisen. Hatake Kakashi was strolling ahead of the others in his usual drowsy manner, hands tucked languidly in his pockets, eyes wandering across the now clear blue sky.  
_Funny_, Kakashi smiled to himself: whenever he was approaching the village after a long burdensome mission - had it been a success or a failure, no matter - the fog seemed to disappear and sun started slowly coming forth. Clouds always began to lighten and brighten upon the one who was returning home.

However, Sakura's vibrant questioning voice brought Kakashi back from the clouds.

"Hmm?"

"I wonder who you meant back up there on the mountain. Who was it?" Sakura asked rather cautiously. One never knew where Kakashi drew the line when it came to his privacy. Usually the line… well, there was _nothing_ that was outside of that line of privacy.

"Who was what?" answered the sensei in a yawning voice.

"When you said Naruto reminded you of _'him'_", Sakura explained and spread her hands, "who did you mean? Who is '_he'_?"

_Oh._ Kakashi glanced behind over his shoulder at the bright-haired young boy who stomped the ground at the others' footsteps. Their gazes met for a moment before Naruto quickly shifted his eyes away, mumbling something insensible under his breath that ended with an exaggerated _'ewww'._

Kakashi sighed. Was the kid still avoiding him over that misunderstanding back on the mountain? He didn't mean it like that! He didn't mean anything like that at all. _Naruto no baka._ Will that child ever grow up? Will he ever grow out of that childish scowl, innocent playfulness and enthusiasm? _Hmm, Naruto certainly does resemble him, in fact he is just like him…_

"Hey, Kakashi-sensei!" growled Sakura, nudging her sensei lightly (though, lightly only on _her_ scale) on the back. "Are you even listening?!"

"Ah, right," Kakashi sighed. "He is… was someone I knew."

Sakura looked unsatisfied. _Ah, how troublesome it is with these kids sometimes._

"In fact, who he was is none of your business."

"But sense_eeei_~", Rock Lee joined the determined inquiry, "I think we all want to know!"

Kakashi glanced back at the crowd. The young ninjas were all staring at him somewhat eagerly, waiting for him to share the story. Why was he always expected to be the storyteller? He would be the worst storyteller; all his tales would make hideous bedtime stories. He wasn't sure what the brats (_well, young adults,_ he rolled his eyes at the post-pubescent team members) wanted from him. Did they want to know his mysteries? _Mysteries all come with terrible responsibilities._ If Kakashi could, he would avoid all mysteries to the last point. Judging by his team's endlessly curious faces, it seemed though as if he had become a terribly exciting mystery himself. Yes, in fact he would probably avoid himself too, if he could - which was exactly what Naruto was doing at the moment.

_Had_ been doing.

"Yeeess! Kakashi-sensei, tell us! Who was it? Who could be as awesome as me?!" the boy with the yellow locks chirped from the back, obviously forgetting his previous dubitations about the sensei's sexual orientation.

_More like 'who could possibly make Kakashi-sensei grin like that',_ giggled Sakura to herself as she smiled at Naruto's giddiness.

Kakashi sighed. His sighs sounded like yawns. Basically every word coming out of his mouth could be interpreted as a yawn.

"Is that so? It interests you that much? Well, I guess I can tell you."

Some frantic 'ooh's and 'eeh's rose from the crowd of youngsters. No signs of emotion could be defined from beneath Kakashi's ever-covering dark mask over his face.

"There is no harm in telling: the guy is dead."

"What do you mean?" exclaimed Naruto first, the others mirroring his baffled expression. A delicious hearty tale turned out to be something gloomy. How typical of Kakashi.

"Dead?!"

"Yeah. His name is Obito, Uchiha Obito — was. He was a… yes, I guess you could say he was a friend of mine. He died… many shinobis died during the Third Ninja War."

_Applauds._ Kakashi kept his eyes ahead, not really wanting to face the others. He had no problem imagining their shocked, mournful faces. He did not want that - he did not want pity. He hated pity. Kakashi was the master of dodging personal questions. This was, though, the master of all personal questions ever presented to him - always had been. He could feel his shell of privacy slowly slipping off and he didn't like it. _Damn these kids: they will never just let it go, will they?_

"But… what the hell does that mean, 'you could say he was a friend'!"  
Naruto had reached the sensei and peeked from behind his back, as if trying to eavesdrop behind the imaginative protecting shell that hid all the exciting mysteries that was Kakashi.

"What was he then?" Naruto's blue eyes narrowed and a triumphant, vulgar grin spread upon his face.  
"A _lover_?"

Kakashi's breath hitched suddenly and he stepped aside and away from the blonde ninja. The younger giggled furiously. Mission _Enter Kakashi's shell of privacy_: accomplished. Time to put in action Mission 2: _Pressure all shameful information out in public_.

"What?! No!" A tiny glimpse of annoyance began to grow in Kakashi's ever-so-cool tone as he witnessed Naruto jumping vigorously around, shouting '_Kakashi had a boyfriend, Kakashi had a boyfriend_'.

"No. He was not my lover. He was… a team member. A very bad one even, to be honest."

"And you're saying that excludes the possibility of him being a lover as well?" Naruto pouted, staring at Sakura with eyebrows rising nearly as high as his hopes. The latter pressed her hands into fists, daring the teenager to come and get what he's worth, that is: the fists, into his face. Of all the great power Sakura had, the greatest could easily have been the power of crushing Naruto's love schemes.

"From what I've witnessed with you guys, that seems the case", Kakashi said, lowering his voice.  
_Hopeless brats._

"Obito was someone I wish had been given more time in this world. That is all. Sometimes it's just that you get less time here than you earn. There is nothing more to it, this is something we all have to cope with."

"But Kakashi-sensei," Sakura fiddled with her gloves and tried to lift her voice, which still came out quiet and slighty timid. She didn't want to bring the sensei down. They all knew he had been through a lot - through what exactly, none of them were sure, but none were quite brave enough to ask. They could babble and argue on and on about his face that somehow yet remained unseen: about his possible buck teeth and huge pouty lips - but never did they wonder out loud about the tragedies in Kakashi's past. It was not a proper Sunday afternoon talk, and even Naruto knew this.

The crowd continued walking in a steady, well-grounded rhythm. The wind felt pleasant as it swept softly across their dirt-smutched cheeks and their weary limbs moved in a kind of a trance, in the same pace with the clouds that Kakashi once again had softly laid his eyes on. A crow flew across the sky in an idle manner and disappeared behind the woods. The shade of the trees had changed unnoticeably as the road went on: the now vivid and luscious dark green of the woods that surrounded them was implying that home was near.

_Obito likes the woods. Obito had liked walking in the woods._

Sakura cleared her voice for some self-reassurance.

"If this Obito-san - if you had had more time with him, I wonder - what would you have done with him?"

Kakashi would have gone walking in the woods with Obito.  
He would have gotten late from many, many important missions because of Obito and his stupid, ridiculous habit of rescuing every cat stuck in a tree on his way to their team meetings.  
Kakashi would have treated Obito some inarizushi for all the times he had put him down and called him names. As many meals as there were times he had called him a lazy idiot.  
Perhaps he would have watched Obito become jounin - after all the numerous times the Uchiha would have failed, of course.

"Hmm, I wonder", Kakashi murmured under his breath, still facing the sky above, as if there could have been someone in there that had the right ears for the words he was about to whisper.

_Perhaps I'd have saved him once, to make for that time when I didn't._


End file.
